Rain causes headaches along Pacifica coast

It is early in the winter 2010 season and already unmistakable signs of fresh groundwater erosion are visible beneath the buildings along Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica. Groundwater, water flowing underground, weakens and separates the layers of soil, sand and clay beneath the buildings, and washes away the surface of bluff. Given enough time groundwater will undermine and destroy the buildings just as surely as winter storms surf.

The dangers to the buildings on Esplanade Ave of uncontrolled groundwater drainage have been known since almost the beginning. A project including channels to control and divert groundwater has been completed at 360 Esplanade, but similar work at 330 Esplanade Ave was abandoned unfinished. (For an early reference to groundwater risks see Esplanade Update – Sunday February 7, 2010.)

The owners, community, and city of Pacifica need to remain alert of the dangers posed to the unprotected buildings along Esplanade Ave. Those buildings, in turn, continue threaten the road, infrastructure and well being of the residents in the nearby neighborhood.

Groundwater Seepage Example

Darkened earth and soil, stained by fresh groundwater, is visible in the following photos of the bluff below the south end of 330 Esplanade Ave. To the left is the flaked and shredded unfinished concrete and soil nail project intended to protect that vacant apartment building. These were taken following a dry period, but the recent storms are starting to make a difference.

310 Esplanade south: November 27, 2010 versus August 15, 2010

The still-occupied apartment building at 310 Esplanade Avenue in Pacifica stands atop a sand and soil bluff that shows significant fresh groundwater-related damage. The vacant buildings just south, 320 and 330 Esplanade are also showing recent weather-related erosion. The base of the bluffs are armored with about 30 feet of massive boulders, and so far the winter storms have not produced surf approaching that height.

In this view we see the south end of 310 Esplanade and neighboring, vacant 320 Esplanade.

In a letter to good friend, fellow poet, and founder of New York Quarterly magazine William Packard in 1990, then-70yr-old Charles Bukowski discusses the art of writing, reiterating his belief that a writer’s words and ideas should come naturally, and not be forced.

For more information, links and a typed transcript see Letters of Note, Don’t try.

Explanation: There’s no place like home. Peering out of the windows of the International Space Station (ISS), astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson takes in the planet on which we were all born, and to which she would soon return. About 350 kilometers up, the ISS is high enough so that the Earth’s horizon appears clearly curved. Astronaut Dyson’s windows show some of Earth’s complex clouds, in white, and life giving atmosphere and oceans, in blue. The space station orbits the Earth about once every 90 minutes. It is not difficult for people living below to look back toward the ISS. The ISS can frequently be seen as a bright point of light drifting overhead just after sunset. Telescopes can even resolve the overall structure of the space station. The above image was taken in late September from the ISS’s Cupola window bay. Dr. Dyson is a lead vocalist in the band MaxQ.

Over on Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow passed along:

Madeleine Robins called this picture of ISS astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson watching the spin far below, “The perfect cover for the perfect unwritten/unread SF novel I wanted to read when I was thirteen.” Exactly right.

“Exactly right” is exactly right. It’s an amazing photo of beautiful subjects, and I wish I could be there, or as a close second-best, read a novel set in that amazing place.

Noticed at the south edge of the 380 Esplanade (The Bluffs, AIMCO) was the Coastal Commission’s mandatory notice of planned work, as well as dire evidence of the need for the work (click a picture for a larger version):

2010 CalEMA 400 Esplanade Storm Drain Outfall Project

Found on the Pacifica City website, an announcement and invitation for proposals or bids for Esplanade storm drain outfall relocation and repair:

2010 CalEMA 400 Esplanade Storm Drain Outfall Project

The 2010 CalEMA 400 Esplanade Storm Drain Outfall project will abandon the storm drain located on 380 Esplanade and will re-route all drainage that flows through the 380 Esplanade outfall to a new storm drain system running south within the Esplanade street right of way to 400 Esplanade. The proposed system will install approximate 900 linear feet of new pipe, 4 new manholes, 1 new drainage inlet and a new storm drain outfall on 400 of Esplanade just south of West Manor Drive.